Nothing Like You
by Ianuaria
Summary: What if Arizona needed a little familiar comfort after she got ghosted? Picking up the night of 14 2, featuring Arizona, Callie, their lives more entangled than they ever thought possible, and results no one ever imagined. EVENTUAL CALZONA ENDGAME.
1. Chapter 1

**_Hi!_**

 ** _I usually write Addek - Maddison is as far as I venture, so this is completely new for me._**

 ** _Please let me know if you like it!_**

* * *

Today, she saved lives. Five lives. Today, she trained new doctors. Today, she gave a mother back her child, a family back their dreams.

Today, she's lying flat on her back, feeling emptier than she ever thought possible.

 _Ghosted._

What a disgusting word, she decides. Ghosted. Ghosts are supposed to be dead people, not selfish people who just up and disappear because they can't take the embarrassment of being fired.

Okay, so it's pretty embarrassing - not that she's ever been fired - but still.

How long does it take to say _it's over_ ? Or _I'm not coming back_ ?

She flips onto her belly to check the clock.

Great. Ghosted, again.

Carina was supposed to be here hours ago, with the promise of dinner and a reenactment of last night.

 _And_ Andrew was out of the house.

* * *

She's sinking onto bed - alone, again - cursing her feet and blessing the fluffy socks - where did she get those, again? - when the phone rings.

"Oh, hell no." she mutters; yet another benefit of sleeping alone. No one judges you for talking to yourself. She shoves her head under the pillow, the insistent trill of the phone fading a little.

She pops back out when it stops ringing, mentally calculating how long she has to sleep before she absolutely has to wake up in the morning.

She's just come up with the unsatisfactory answer of four hours when the phone goes off again.

"Dr. Torres." she snaps, without looking at the caller id.

"Can I please please talk to Sofia, please, I've been ghosted, like, twice, I swear everyone keeps turning into ghosts around me, it's like I'm the ...the grim reaper or someone and I'm really sorry but I need to talk to her right now - please?"

" _Arizona_?"

"Oh, um. Yeah, hi?"

"For gods sakes, it's one in the morning!" she yells, warming up a little. "She's asleep."

"I'm sorry," she wails. "I just thought...you know, talking to her always makes me feel better. I forgot about the time difference."

"Could you ...call back in the morning?" she asks, trying and failing to stifle a yawn.

"Sure." she chirps. It's a very unconvincing chirp, though, and she feels a little guilty.

"Or...you could talk to me?" she hedges, eyeing the clock and wondering how long it will take to 'talk'.

"Oh. Um..."

"So you got ghosted, huh?" she asks, sinking into a pile of pillows, trapping the phone between them and her ear so she can have her hands free. "Sucks."

"I know." Arizona says mournfully. She can just picture her now, old pajamas, ratty hair, probably a tub of ice cream - banana,gross - and lying on the floor.

"Was it anyone...special?" It must have been, for her to be so cut up when it ended.

She feels a stab of guilt at how insincere her voice sounds. But, as she reasons, it's really hard to be sympathetic about someone else's crap love life when you've met someone amazing yourself.

"Kinda." she hiccups. She can hear the spoon against her teeth. "She was...great."

"Can we get a name?" she asks, feeling a craving for banana ice cream start somewhere in the back of her mind, where her old habits live.

"Doesn't matter." she says. "It wasn't all that long, you know, but she made me feel almost -"

 _Like you do._

The words she uses as a yardstick for everyone she's met so far. No one matches up.

"You know what?" she says suddenly. "Callie, it's okay. Go to sleep. I'm fine, I'll work this out, and I can always call in the morning-"

"Arizona-"

"Goodnight, Callie."

* * *

 ** _So? Do you want me to continue? I'm totally Addek trash, but I've always loved Calzona too._**

 ** _Review and let me know!_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the amazing response to the last chapter!_**

 ** _You guys are seriously awesome._**

* * *

She calls again at around eight the next morning, just as she's watching Sofia skip into her classroom.

"Bye, Mama!" she yells over her shoulder as she digs through her purse, looking for the phone.

"Shit," she mutters as she picks up, disappointing both Sofia, who flounces away, and Arizona, who says-

"You can't possibly hate me that much!"

"No, not you," she says hurriedly. "Not you. I'm sorry, I just dropped her off at school."

"You could have called." she says pointedly, clearly in a sulk.

"I ...forgot, okay." she says lamely. More like was too busy texting the hot new surgeon to remember to call her ex-wife.

But the ex-wife doesn't need to know that.

And calling the ex-wife always gives her a weird swoopy feeling, which she doesn't have the time to deduce, and therefore she just avoids it.

"No you didn't." Arizona accuses. She's particularly pissy today. "You just didn't want me to talk to her!"

"Do you _hear_ yourself right now?" she asks, swerving to avoid a gaggle of moms.

"Shit." she mutters again.

"There! You said it again!" Arizona wails, and she ducks into an empty classroom.

"Not to you." she fairly roars. "The PTA meeting, it's tonight and I totally forgot about it and I'm a terrible mother and Sofia is going to hate me and I have surgeries scheduled and-"

"Tonight?" Arizona muses. She can totally hear the gears turning in her perky head.

"Oh no. No no no no. Stay, Arizona. Stay right-"

"I can be out in time for the meeting." she says defensively. "And you're busy, and you can't go, and I can go, and-"

"You live," she hisses, smiling at the janitor who is now glaring at her to leave the room so he can clean. "In Seattle."

"So?" she says cheerily. "See you tonight, Callie."

"Don't you have patients?" she makes one last desperate attempt.

"Nope," she says. "Karev isn't in jail, so he can handle stuff for a few days."

 _A few days?_

"Wait, _what?_ Karev? Jail?" she sputters. She can't find her car keys. Damn.

"Oh, you have so much catching up to do." she says. She can hear a keyboard clattering in the background.

Trust Arizona to still book flights on her office computer.

"We can go to dinner after the meeting," she's saying happily. "That place you told me about, with the pizza that Sofia likes, and we can all catch up."

"I...uh, I already have dinner plans." she says, a heated flush spreading through her cheeks and down her neck at the thought of how Arizona's face will probably crumple at this news.

"Oh," she says, slightly subdued. "Okay, just me and Sofi then. Is it...a date? A hot date? Oh. My. God. Callie! Did you _meet someone_?"

The last two words are laden with meaning. To Arizona, everything means something. A random kiss in a public bathroom means something. A starry eyed intern means something.

"Kin...da?"

The answering screech nearly blows her eardrums.

"We just met." she clarifies. "A few days ago. She awesome, a surgeon, into sports medicine...that's how we met actually, over a patient and...yeah. She's great."

"So I can watch Sofia tonight!" she says, obviously thrilled. "And you can mm hmm."

She keeps humming and giggling on the other end.

"Arizona, no."

"What?" she giggles. "You like her, right?"

She does. Like really _likes_ her.

"It's just..." she starts uncomfortably, wondering where the boundaries lie. "I'm not.."

How does she tell Arizona she's not ready yet?

She wasn't ready for Penny.

She isn't ready now.

She's still...searching. For what, she isn't sure, but she hasn't found it yet and doesn't think she will anytime soon.

It scares her.

Because, very possibly, the thing she's looking for is bubbly, blonde, has butterflies on her scrub cap and has totally and completely moved on from the ruin of their marriage.

"Wear black." she's saying. "You look awesome in black. And Callie-"

"Huh?"

"Have fun."

* * *

Okay, New York is definitely not for her. It's so...loud. And so fast. And no one wants to chat. Or be human, apparently, since that guy totally stole her taxi.

She's just looking around for another one, hoping desperately that she won't be late and ruin Callie's date with her mystery woman, when a small ferocious object collides with her legs.

"Mommy!"

"Hi, baby." she gasps, clasping her tightly to her body. She smells comfortingly of tropical fruit shampoo and Callie's fabric softener and that unexplainable Sofia smell, like she always does, and she hugs her tighter, breathing in and letting herself forget the awful week she's had.

Sofia pulls back, her little hands tight on her shoulders, Mark's gray eyes laughing back at her. She has Callie's dark hair and Callie's humor and Callie's mouth but those eyes are all Mark Sloan, and she can almost hear him saying _chin up, Blondie._

"What are you doing here?" she asks breathlessly, letting Callie yank her to her feet. Her leg locks a bit and she shakes it out surreptitiously, hoping Callie won't notice.

"I got off early," she answers. "And madam wanted to see you, so here we are."

"I'm _so_ happy you came," Sofia squeals, leading her by the hand, taking Callie's in her other, skipping along between them. "You can finally see Miss Brewer, and see my pictures, and read my story, and-"

"See?" she murmurs to Callie over her chattering head. "Totally worth the long distance PTA meeting."

"This is Mama's house," Sofia says proudly and rather unnecessarily, since she's seen about a bazillion pictures of the townhouse before. "Terry said I can't have two houses but I have Mama's house and your house, so I _do._ "

She looks at her anxiously, like she's asking for confirmation, and she feels awful. Ten more months before she has her baby back in Seattle.

"Of course you do." she says warmly. She wants to find Terry, the little snot, and yell at her.

Or him.

"I'll just...get dressed." Callie says vaguely, gesturing to the stairs. "You know where everything is, so go ahead and make yourself at home."

She frowns at her retreating back. She's been spacey since the airport, her head in the clouds.

But Sofia is tugging at her, wanting to show her something or the other, and there's no time to think.

"Just a minute, Sofi." she says. "Let me get the door."

The bell rings again, followed by a brief, decisive knock. She freezes in her tracks.

No. Way.

"Mommy, open it." Sofia says, confused.

"I'll get that!" Callie bellows above their heads.

It can't be. She flew across the freaking country to get away from pierogi and parking-lot kisses and car sex and secret dates and -

"Eliza." she breathes as Sofia goes ahead and opens the door.

* * *

 ** _I promise a longer chapter next time...until then, please review and let me know how it's going._**


	3. Chapter 3

**_Hey guys! Thank you so so much for your patience and the fabulous feedback on the last chapter. You all are the best readers ever!_**

* * *

"I can't _believe_ -" she's muttering, pacing restlessly. " _Callie_ -"

"How was I supposed to know?" she snarls back. Of all the gay surgeons in the world, of course her hot date had to be the insensitive jerk who ghosted her ex- wife.

Her ex-wife who is currently pacing a track into her living room rug, hands buried in her blonde hair.

"Do you _never_ check up on your dates?" Arizona explodes. "For gods sake, Callie, you dated Penny. You dated the woman who _killed_ Derek Shepherd. You're dating the woman who stole Richard Webers' job, who ghosted me, and basically left Grey Sloan upside down-"

"What was I supposed to do, run a background check?" she counters.

"Before you let our daughter meet her? Yes!"

"Are you saying that I'm a bad mother?" she yells back.

"Of course not, I'm just saying-"

"I _didn't know_ she was going to turn up here, okay?" she says, holding up a hand for Arizona to stop; Sofia is peeking at them form behind the door, eyes saucerlike.

"Go get your jacket, baby." Arizona says, her voice perfectly calm.

"Wait, no, we can't just-"

"I came here for the meeting," she says frostily. "You can come if you want to."

In the end, they all end up at Sofia's school, one happy six year old skipping along between two sullen women. What a picture they must make.

"You must be Mommy." the teacher says, clasping her hand. She's soft, round, midthirties, and smells comfortingly of putty. "And you're Mama."

Sofia nods proudly, side-eyeing a small blonde girl on the other side of the room, who is staring at them.

"Is that Terry?" she asks. Sofia nods.

"Okay, I know you're mad, but stop picking on the first graders." Callie hisses.

"I am not."

"You _just_ gave that kid the Look."

She says the word like it starts with a capital, emphasising with a dramatic roll of her eyes.

"What do you mean, the _Look_ ?"

"You know what I mean."

"No I don't, how I am I supposed to know what you mean when you won't even say-"

"Stop _fighting_." Sofia whines.

"We're not fighting." they chorus. Sofia doesn't look convinced.

"Let's ..." Callie whispers, looking uncomfortable.

"Yeah." she agrees. "Let's not."

After all, they're not each other's business anymore.

 ** _.._**

"Callie?"

She grunts in response; they're being civil, but she's still touchy. As she has a right to be. She shouldn't have lit into her like that; what - and _who_ \- she does has nothing to do with her.

It's just that...well, she somehow doesn't like the idea of Eliza anywhere near her child. She's flighty and indecisive, and she hates to think of Callie getting involved with her, of Eliza worming into their lives. Of Sofia getting attached, and then _boom_ , one day she's just gone and Sofia's lost another person.

She's already lost so many people who loved her, in so short a life. Mark. Lexie. One mother at a time. She's never really asked Sofia what she thinks of the new state of affairs - she's listened to her cheery patter about her new school and her new friends and her dance class and how she has a whole room all to herself.

Does she ever miss her when she's in New York? She's longing for the day she gets her baby back for a whole year, but what does that mean for Sofia? Another new school, strange kids. Her life uprooted, coast-to-coast.

She sucks in her breath when she reaches the pinboard decorated in colorful paper flowers, titled _MY FAMILY AND ME_.

Under a little pink paper pansy with Sofia's name on it in childishly chunky script, is a picture of her as a toddler, on her second birthday, a wide, cake-smeared grin lighting her chubby face as she sits on a picnic table with not one, not two, but _four_ parents clustered proudly behind her; god, Mark looks young, Lexie younger, eyes crinkling with laughter and sun. Callie has one arm around her shoulders, looking straight into the camera, and she's propping up Sofia with one hand, and looking at Callie with an expression she's sure hasn't crossed her face in the last year.

"Yeah, I gave her that one." Callie says quietly behind her. "She said she wanted one with both of us and her daddy and Lex, and I found this."

She touches the tiny happy faces, marveling at how much they've lost in the last few years. She shouldn't have to lose any more, she thinks, watching their daughter explain a dried pasta masterpiece to Callie. She shouldn't have to split her life between her mothers.

The question is - which one of them will bend?

* * *

"Er," the teacher coughs politely behind them. "If I could have a moment?"

They leave Sofia chattering away to a bunch of pigtailed little girls, following the teacher out into a small courtyard. She motions for them to sit on a low wooden bench, but she stands in front of them, arms crossed.

"It's not our place to say so," she says, taking a deep breath; she only just manages to not roll her eyes. She can't stand people who start with excuses.

"But your...custody arrangements don't seem to suit your child."

 ** _.._**

Arizona's quiet in the cab home, holding Sofia's sleepy head protectively against her. She can sense she wants to talk, but she's stubbornly tightlipped, staring at the lights whizzing by the windows.

"I had no idea." she offers up, part truce, part apology. It's true; she had absolutely no idea. She seemed so happy, adjusting to their new life, making friends. Sure, she missed Seattle.

She just didn't know how bad it was.

"She's been...shutting herself in, Callie." Arizona whispers miserably, stroking her silky dark hair. "How did we miss this?"

How did _she_ miss it? She's been the one doing the day-to-day parenting, she's the one who's been driving her to school and picking her up from dance and cooking her favorites out of guilt and ...well, everything. Arizona's been on the other end if the country.

Maybe that judge _was_ right. Maybe Arizona was the better mother.

But she seems _fine_. Perfectly fine. She was bubbly at dinner, inhaling pizza and scribbling happily on the kid-friendly paper mats at the restaurant she loves. She's been fine.

"I thought... I thought she liked it here." she says heavily.

"Do _you_ like it?" she asks dubiously. Well. Not what she was expecting, but then again she's always the tone of surprise.

Does she like it? It's ... fast, and exciting, and the work is interesting and challenging and she's making friends.

But sometimes - just sometimes, she misses home. Because that's what Seattle and Grey-Sloan are to her, and will probably always be.

When she spends the weekend holed up with her daughter for lack of anyone to go out with, and conversely when she has to drag a sleepy child to the hospital in the a.m and beg an intern to watch her because she has no one she trusts intimately enough to leave her with. When she remembers an inside joke and laughs out loud and people stare at her like she's crazy because the haven't been with her as long as Bailey and Arizona and Karev and Meredith and the rest of the gang.

When Sofia cries for her father, usually after she comes back from a playdate where the kid had two present parents.

But she wanted a fresh start and she got it. This is her new life, she's crafting it into what she's always wanted. She can't possibly leave her work here, even though her heart breaks when she realises she's takes Sofia away from everything she's ever known.

The question is - does Arizona feel the same way?

It's silent after they put Sofia to bed, both of them insisting on goodnight kisses. She looks delighted, obliging, planting sloppy kisses on their cheeks, holding Arizona a moment longer.

"Thank you for coming, Mommy." she says sweetly, sleepily. She can see Arizona's eyes misting, and pulls her out before she starts getting emotional.

..

"I guess I'll leave in the morning, then." she says, twisting her hair into a knot. "I won't get a flight out this late, can I -"

"Of course."

"We can...I don't know. We should probably." she's saying, wringing her hands.

"Yeah." she agrees.

It's been ages since she's had this kind of conversation, where there's no need to finish sentences because the other person already knows what you're saying.

But they both know they need to speak to the lawyer, change the custody arrangements. Uprooting her every year is hardly an option.

"One of us will probably have to move." she says tentatively; Arizona's hands still on the pillow she was fluffing.

"That was the whole point." she says tersely. "Neither of us wanted to move, so we decided to ruin _her_ life instead."

"We _both_ agreed it was the best thing at the time." she replies heatedly.

"Well, it clearly wasn't." she yells, shoving the pillow away. "Sofia's miserable and I'm miserable, so I sure as hell hope _you're_ happy."

Is she?

"Well talk in the morning." she says, struggling to keep her voice calm. Arguing won't solve anything. With them, it never does.

"I'll be _gone_ in the morning." she snaps. "By the way, Sofia asked to visit Seattle."

* * *

She watches the light go out of Callie's eyes, the imperceptible sag of her shoulders, the droop of her head. She has no family. Her parents are...well, the way they always are, and her sister's a dervish, hardly ever still. She knows she feels isolated out here, no one close enough to call family.

Sofia's all she has. She couldn't bear to think of her all alone in this strange city, only Penny (the Derek - killer) for company. It's why she spoke to the lawyer to change the agreement.

"Oh." she says, her voice very small. "I guess - next weekend? She won't miss school, and -"

"She wants to be there for Halloween," she says gently. "I can take her with me, have her back by the first at the latest, she won't miss too much school. Besides-" she grins. "She's smart like her Mama. She can catch up."

"Yeah." she mutters. "Okay, I'll, uh -" she points jerkily to the hallway. "I'll get her stuff."

"Callie."

"I'm sorry," she gasps, tears flooding in earnest down her face. "Oh god, I'm sorry, I messed up, she should have been with you, I can't believe she's been miserable this whole time missing her old life and I -" she hiccups, wrapping her arms around herself.

She hesitates a second, waiting, deliberating.

 _This is the woman who helped you shower after you lost your leg,_ she reminds herself.

And then it's easy to take that step and wrap her shaking body in her arms, whisper soothing words into her silky hair, so like their daughter's. She rocks her like she does Sofia, wiping her salty wet cheeks.

"It's okay." she murmurs. "You couldn't have known."

"It was selfish." she sobs.

"No, you-" she starts, but she's stopped by her lips against hers, searing and insistent, her hands driving the words from her mind.

"Callie, no-"

"Sorry." she gasps, tearing away. "God. Arizona, I'm so -"

"You know what?" she says slowly. Screw it. They're both lonely, both miserable. They deserve this one small happiness.

 _"I'm_ sorry." she grins, tilting forward to press her lips softly to Callie's.

"Me too." she breaths raggedly, and then someone has kicked the door shut and her hands are in her hair and there's no time to think, no time to breathe, no time to be sorry.

* * *

 ** _This was sorta based on Sofia's phone call to Arizona in 14 04._**

 ** _Also, some Calzona._**

 ** _Review, pretty please?_**


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